Hugh Grant has revealed he contracted Covid-19 at the beginning of this year, when the pandemic was still in its early stages.
In an interview with US talk show host Stephen Colbert, the Undoing actor said he realised he was ill when he got a fever and lost his sense of smell, but at the time, he didn’t know what it was.
“My wife [Anna Eberstein] and I had it… I think I got it in February,” the 60-year-old revealed. “I’ve had an antibody test, only a month ago. I still have those antibodies, so I know that’s what it was.
“It started as just a very strange syndrome where I kept breaking into a terrible sweat. It was like a poncho of sweat, embarrassing really.
“Then my eyeballs felt about three sizes too big and this feeling as though an enormous man was sitting on my chest – Harvey Weinstein or someone. I thought, ‘I don’t know what this is’.”
Hugh continued: “Then I was walking down the street one day and I thought, ‘I can’t smell a damn thing’. And you start to panic – by then, people were just starting to talk about this as a symptom.
“I started sniffing flowers, nothing. And you get more and more desperate. I started sniffing in garbage cans. You know, you want to sniff strangers’ armpits because you just can’t smell anything.”
He added: “I eventually went home and I sprayed my wife’s Chanel No. 5 directly into my face. Couldn’t smell a thing, but I did go blind.”
Hugh is one of several high-profile stars who contracted coronavirus in the early stages of the pandemic, with Tom Hanks and Idris Elba both testing positive back in March.
Since then, Alyssa Milano, Big Bang Theory star Jim Parsons and Cristiano Ronaldo have all spoken about being diagnosed with coronavirus.